We are pleased to announce the General Availability of Bridge 3.0.

This release of Bridge is a reimplementation using technologies which allow us to plan for the future of Bridge development. We have chosen to migrate Bridge to the Java platform to provide the flexibility required for the next library integration standard for self service, whether that is SIP3, BIC Library Communication Framework or another industry supported standard.

This reimplementation continues to provide the solid performance that has been experienced with previous releases, and continues to support the customisations chosen in your system.

The Features document for this release is available on our website, and the customer portal.

Please raise a service request through the My Support Portal to schedule your upgrade.

Bridge Pro 2.0 was released on the 10 Dec 2012, following a successful beta test. Some of the new features include:

• Display of message if item has been borrowed before
• Display of warning for cards about to expire
• Allow renewals when loan limit is exceeded
• Allow log in for expired cards
• Use the self service machines for automating book sales

Please refer to what’s new in Bridge Pro 2.0  on the website, for a full list of new functionality. To learn more about these features join us for a webinar on 31 January at 11:00.

If you are interested in the Bridge Pro 2.0 release please raise a support case and Capita will schedule the upgrade with you in the New Year.

Self-service technology has evolved rapidly over the last few years, many libraries now have RFID tags installed or will in the not so distant future. The ubiquitous availability of RFID tags to identify stock has powered a whole host of new technology to simplify huge manual tasks.

It’s great to see technology being used in this kind of way, to help libraries to derive the maximum use of their stock and improve the service to their users. Through the Additions Partner Programme, we have worked with the major vendors to produce creative solutions that have enabled the integration between the LMS and the new machines, such as sorters and stock tunnels. Although it has meant that the interface (SIP 2.0) used to connect the traditional self-service machines where users could self-issue stock and pay fines has been stretched far beyond its intended design. The projects involved in developing these new products have won innovation awards. For example, Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council won the BIC/CILIP RFID in Libraries Innovation Award 2010 and the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) won the 2011 BIC/CILIP RFID in Libraries Innovation Award for their extended use of sorters.

There is, however, the ongoing challenge of integration with RFID handheld terminals (HHT) that allow librarians to check the stock by simply walking down the aisle with an RFID enable scanner. This has the potential to reduce the manual effort of tasks such as stock taking management, quickly checking for stock which is of poor physical quality or assisting a borrower to find a specific item. This sounds ideal and is something that we’re keen to support. To identify the stock, the HHT require large lists of data to be exported from the LMS. This is functionality that SIP 2.0 wasn’t originally designed to support, so cannot be used in a realistic situation.  The solution to date has been to use a number of scripts or batch processes that would produce lists of old, or reserved stock that could then be manually loaded onto the HHT. That is fine, provided that the user understands how the underlying data is stored in the LMS and knows how to effectively extract it. Extracting the data is only part of the process. The challenge of ho to update the LMS remains.

Wouldn’t it be great if all the technical complexity could be removed? So users could simply select the type of stock they would like to search for and easily update the LMS once the task was completed. Many customers think so, and we agree. So we have worked with the major suppliers to produce a creative solution for this using the latest integration technology, web services.  It became apparent that creating a solution between the Capita LMS and the RFID supplier would only solve part of the issue; what would happen if you wanted to change suppliers? It would ultimately mean that a non-proprietary solution would have to be produced that all LMS and RFID vendors could use.

This is why we are working closely with 3M (the custodians of SIP 2.0) to guide the development of SIP 3.0. In addition we are also working closely with the Book Industry Communication (BIC) who is developing a new library interoperability framework designed to improve the integration between the LMS and self-service machines – known as BLCF. We drafted a proposal about how BLCF could be extended to include functionality that would support interoperability between the LMS and RFID handheld devices. As a result BIC kicked off a project to add the functionality by calling a meeting from the major vendors including representatives from 2CQR, 3M, Bibliotheca, Axiell, Infor, SirsiDynix and our technical team. The meeting was the first step to ensure that a solution would be designed so everyone will be able to use it.

So watch this space. Still work to be done, but we’re getting there.

Photo taken by Paul Lowry

The Unversity of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has been crowned the winner of the 2011 BIC/CILIP RFID Innovation Award for their extended use of the sorter. UCLan has adapted their 3M FX Sorter, using Capita’s Bridge Pro to sort item into the correct bins, and upload acquisitions to the LMS.

Using the sorter in this way will allow UCLan to get items on to shelves and available to students within a couple of hours of delivery – a process that previously could take up to a week. As Jeremy Andrew, Head of Library and Training Services at UCLan, explains, this will significantly improve the student experience.

Watch a video of the sorter, in which Jeremy also talks about how the sorter was adapted, and the full benefits it will bring the library.

For more information about Bridge Pro and extending the functionality of your sorter, email libraries-sales@capita.co.uk.

[podcast format=”video”]http://talis-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/uclan_rfid.mp4[/podcast]

The latest version of Talis Bridge Pro, version 1.5, has now been released. The main features of this release include:

• Accept overpayment and record it as credit
• Self-issue of age restricted AV material
• Automatic item relocation for dynamic stock system.

More details of all the new features can be found in the accompanying ‘What’s New in Talis Bridge Pro 1.5’ document.

To schedule the free upgrade of your Talis Bridge Pro licences you will need to raise a case through My Support. Talis Bridge Lite customers wanting to find out more about upgrading, please contact sales@talis.com.

In preparation for the next Talis Bridge Pro release (2.0), we would like your input into which areas to focus development. A consultation survey has been posted online – it contains all the new features we identified from customer feedback. Please indicate which features you feel are most important and add comments where appropriate. Should there be any area that we have not covered, there is a comments box at the bottom for you to suggest additional functionality.

Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council has won the BIC/CILIP RFID in Libraries Innovation Award 2010 for their implementation of RFID across the council. The award will be formally presented at the RFID in Libraries Conference on 9 November 2010. They were awarded the title for ‘extending RFID beyond the ‘front of shop’ and understanding how RFID-enabled items can transform back-office operations to the advantage of the Council.’

The concept for the award-winning innovation came from Trafford realising great potential in back-office saving by having shelf-ready books upon delivery. Trafford worked closely with Talis Additions Partner Intellident and the Talis team to develop the smartTunnel™ product. Enabling the tight integration between the LMS and the smart tunnel is Talis Bridge Pro.

How it works

Upon receipt of a shipment, the box of books is placed in the smartTunnel, and within a few seconds the LMS is updated with the contents. These books are then shelf-ready or can be despatched to another destination across the library service. Any incomplete delivery is identified immediately.

The new technology helps the home library service run by Trafford Libraries. It enables bulk loaning to those that cannot make it to a library or that require large orders (such as residential homes). It also helps with inter-library exchanges with boxes of items being swapped between libraries without the need to scan individual items. Additionally it will receipt stock in to stock, and authorise payment.

Congratulations to Trafford Libraries for their recognition of the work they have been doing over the last couple of years.

Earlier this week I attended the Talis Bridge Open Day and as this was the first time I had attended a Bridge day at Talis I was looking forward to sharing ideas on Bridge, self service and RFID with the other attendees. The Talis team were joined by Andy Chalbourne, Marketing Manager at Intellident and Andy Fish, Technical Manager and Richard Howgill, Sales and Services Manager from 3M Library Systems, both part of the Talis Additions Partner Programme, who were also there to share ideas and lead discussions on self service and RFID technologies.

The day was attended by a number of Talis customers from both academic and public libraries all wishing to gain a better understanding of how self-service and Bridge can further improve library efficiencies and to also see what may be around the corner in this area of technology.

I thought one of the most interesting and compelling  presentations of the day came from  Intellident’s Andy Chadbourne who focused firstly on the proven Return on Investment (ROI) of self-service terminals and went on to look at future developments of RFID technology. Andy pointed out that of the transactions possible through the self-service kiosk some library customers were seeing as much as 93% of those transactions through the terminals. The other 7% were those borrowers who would simply never use the terminal and still go to the counter to perform their transaction. In the future uses of RFID in the library, Andy highlighted the work Intellident are pursuing with shelf reader technology, stock wands and box readers. Andy’s presentation is available if you would like a copy by emailing a.chadbourne@intellident.co.uk and he would be happy to send it individually.

Another interesting presentation came from Andy Fish at 3M who talked about where we are with SIP3 and Interoperability. SIP3 is a major global project and will only be successful if the voices of all customers and suppliers are heard; there will be a SIP3 community website for people’s thoughts and opinions up and running in the very near future. As well as SIP3 Andy talked about the ISO 28560 tag data standard that all major suppliers in the UK have agreed to support that I really think will unlock library potential and we’ll start to see true library interoperability in the future.

There were a couple of thought provoking debates to round off the day, most notably on how data protection is a tricky area when trying to balance this with providing meaningful customer messages on self-service machines. Do you provide a list of outstanding titles on loan as a value added service to customers, or does that contravene data protection? I thought another interesting debate was on the reliance some borrowers can have on the library counter and the need to encourage more use of the self-service terminals. Some libraries mentioned they have taken date stamps away to try and help, but many libraries are well aware of the benefits that removing the front desk will have in driving up use of self service technologies. 

I’m already looking forward to the next Bridge Open Day scheduled for later in the year.

At yesterday’s Talis Bridge Event, Hilary Halliday and Chris Morris from Solihull libraries outlined how they implemented RFID self-service within the library service earlier this year.

One of the most vital things Solihull learnt was the importance of talking to people – talking to everyone in fact about the plans, the timescales and their desired outcomes. Hillary explained that it was also useful to include staff in the decision-making and asking all the teams to envision the new processes they’d like to adopt. The strategy used by the implementation team at Solihull was to take a ½ day with all staff to give them some time to think about and resolve issues and fears, and to expand ideas by thinking through how the implementation of RFID would work. This was also an opportunity for everyone to get ‘back to basics’ and consider the whole spectrum of customer service. It was important to the implementation team that the customers at Solihull were fully supported through the new processes and felt perfectly comfortable with the new machines. The library staff had a huge part to play in making that a success.

Hilary and Chris also emphasised the importance of planning and getting your business case right, and at Solihull, they had a detailed plan for every library to make sure nothing was missed.

Something they hadn’t anticipated was the time it took to go through the RFID tender process, which took several weeks longer than planned. They chose Intellident as their supplier and also chose to use Talis Bridge Pro as the connection between the Talis LMS and the RFID machines. Chris said that Solihull had “excellent support all the way through the process” of implementing Talis Bridge Pro, and they were pleased that it “just worked” without too much consideration being needed from the already very busy team.

It was important that once Solihull had chosen their supplier, the staff had an opportunity to use the RFID pads as part of their daily routines. Getting a large amount of the back office processes working with the new systems ahead of time led to a much smoother launch.

Hilary and Chris also made sure that the project didn’t end on go live day. They illustrated the importance of getting feedback, and continuing to monitor the success of the roll out. Interestingly, they found that children tended to lead the way with learning the new technology, showing the rest of the family how to do it!

RFID is now live in 8 of Solihull’s libraries and since their launch in February they have had over half a million transactions carried out by over 25,000 different borrowers.  Around 89% of the transactions are now happening via the RFID machines, validating the move to free up staff to concentrate on the next phase of the project – developing the service and enhancing staff skills to provide consistently better user services.

Please follow the link if you’d like more information about the features of Talis Bridge Pro.

It’s always valuable to have an opportunity to get feedback from customers, and recently we had a perfect chance to do just that, at our first set of Talis Bridge events. The two days focused on academic and public libraries and the interesting and engaging discussions led us from the history of SIP2 right to where we see future developments of Talis Bridge going.

As well as reviewing the features of both Talis Bridge Lite and Pro, it was extremely useful to hear how our customers think Talis Bridge Pro should develop over the coming months. We had a whole host of ideas based on a number of themes including a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to make configuration and reporting easier, stock management, streamlining the acquisitions and receipting process and customisation of borrower messages. The team will be taking all the ideas from the Bridge events and using these to help formulate the development roadmap over the next few weeks. If you’d like to contribute to these ideas then please leave a comment on the blog.

At today’s Talis Bridge Day here in Talis’ offices, Karen Reece set the event off to a great start by facilitating an excellent discussion of the drivers behind self-service in academic libraries.

Karen was first of all interested to know whether RFID offered any significant differences over electro-magnetic tagging. Liverpool Hope University have fully adopted RFID and find that it speeds up the process when users are at the self-service machine, especially when large numbers of items are being processed. Manchester Metropolitan University had found that certain types of publication were simply not amenable to electro-magnetic tags. And Birmingham City University wanted automatic detection that all parts of multi-volume sets had been returned.

Self-payments also threw up some interesting issues. Birmingham City University, who are planning to introduce ePayment facilities, wanted to offer a seamless experience for the student by enabling payments at the device, as opposed to a scenario in which the student has self-issued an item but is asked to go elsewhere to pay outstanding fines. De Montfort University, which now offers online payments on its website, had decided that minimising cash handling on campus – particularly bearing in mind cost-saving and security implications – was the overriding consideration.

This threw up a more fundamental question for libraries – namely in the context of online transactions, how exactly do we define self-service? It’s not simply about the provision of self-service devices, and so we need a broad definition in keeping with the pervasive nature of self-service in society. Against a backdrop of the 24/7 expectations engendered by the Internet, then, it’s all about being able to help ourselves.

De Montfort University recently procured an RFID-enabled self-return sortation unit, and although they have experienced some teething problems, there are undeniable benefits. They are effusive about the efficiencies gained in the reshelving workflow, as it’s now simply a matter of taking a bin to the relevant section. However, if there are any problems, then the library has to double discharge all items, thus undermining those efficiencies. They weren’t interested in using the facility as a marketing tool – this was an approach that UCLAN had taken by displaying the workings of the sortation unit that they acquired a few years ago, but apparently the students soon got bored of it.

Newman College asked other participants how they had promoted use of the self-service machines. At Dublin City University, librarians at the counter bring users over to the machine. Other libraries have made a conscious decision to promote the services now available at the devices, and feel that students might not otherwise adopt self-service.

Karen Reece pointed out that findings repeatedly emphasise the importance of one’s first experience of a self-service unit. From personal experience, she noted her ongoing reluctance to use Tesco’s self-service units following their failure to work the first time she’d tried one. This met with strong agreement; De Montfort University pointed out the importance of immediate usability.
Is a fully self-service library achievable? There seemed to be consensus that 70% is practicable at this stage, although 80-90% would be ideal. Birmingham City University has made a decision to set targets for specific library sites which will in any case have different levels of self-service and maybe different types of user. They also pointed out a problem that has largely been overlooked and that is keeping the lines of contact open with users.

To this, I would add that the library’s regular contact with and understanding of students is  now an important value proposition to the wider institution that it struggling to keep abreast of the rapidly changing and diversifying student body. So although the benefits of self-service are now clearly understood, the relationship with the user base needs to be safeguarded in the absence of the more basic customer transactions that self-service is replacing.